More than your body

“What do I do if I have been sending nudes to a boy and he gets bored with me?”

I was on a panel for high school girls recently and my heart dropped to the floor when this question was read out anonymously. I found myself choked with emotion, not because I was unaware of what was going on in the culture, but because this girl was unaware of the truth that she is more than her body. And truth be told, most of these girls were unaware. 

Before I move on, I want to be very clear…if you have ever sent nudes to someone, you are ok. You are good. You are loved.

This battle with our bodies is not a new battle. It has been a fight since the beginning of time. Look at Adam and Eve, the moment sin entered the world they immediately covered up their bodies. They had been able to view each other in such a pure way they didn’t know any other way to look at it. All of that changed when sin was introduced and since then, we have been trying to fight to recapture the goodness of the human body. 

But this is exactly what the enemy has always done, he takes something good and twists it. 

Look at pornography, it takes the beautiful human body and twists it into an object for pleasure. It totally reduces the human person to an object to be used, not to be loved. Like I said, this is not new information. 

There is so much more to the human person, to you, than a post or a picture; there is a heart that loves, suffers, and gives. Our culture has made it very easy to show a lot but reveal very little. You see it so clearly on social media. People can easily post tons of edited photos with filters, but do we know what burdens their hearts? Do we know how they are suffering? Do we know what challenges they have been facing? Do we know what is causing them anxiety? The answer is most likely, no. We must remember that people are more than their posts. 

To those of you who have sent nudes, you are ok and I desperately want you to know this:

You are seen. Your body is good and beautiful. You are so much more than your body.